


Brand New Day

by HeidiBug731



Category: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Genre: Complete, F/M, Frenemies, Good and Evil, Good versus Evil, Los Angeles, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Unofficial Sequel, backdated
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-03-04 13:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3069893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeidiBug731/pseuds/HeidiBug731
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No longer able to feel, Billy spends his free time mourning Penny's death. Until one day, over two years since stealing her body from the morgue, Billy brings the girl of his dreams back from the dead. But the reunion isn't like he'd thought. And when Penny doesn't approve of his involvement with the ELE and their takeover of the city, will she rise to stop him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**ACT I**

Penny opened her eyes to a blurred field of vision with large red blob in the center. Eventually everything came into focus, and she saw that leaning over her was a man in a red science coat with goggles resting on his forehead.

"Where-?" she started

"Don't try to sit up," said the man. She felt pressure on her shoulder as he laid a hand on her to hold her down. "You've been through a lot. Just rest."

She turned her head, trying to take in her soundings. There were tubes and wires everywhere, some of them hooked to machines, some of them hooked up to her. Vials bubbled with strange liquids. There was an IV in her arm filled with one of those liquids - light green in color. She was lying on a long metal table.

"What's the last thing you remember?" asked the man.

"I was…" She tried to focus, her mind foggy. She turned her head to look up at the figure leaning over her and realized she recognized him. But from where...?

"Dr. Horrible!" she cried. He'd been there at some function … some event … Captain Hammer had been there too, trying to stop him. She shook her head, unable to remember it all, but it didn't matter. She knew enough to know she was in danger. She tried to back away from him, off the table, but he held her down.

"It's okay!" he told her. "It's okay!"

She continued struggling. "You–! You–!" She didn't know what she was trying to accuse him of. She just wanted him to let her go.

"It's all  _right_!" he insisted. "Just - look! Look!" He started disconnecting her from the machines. "I'm going to let go," he told her gently as he held her with one hand and flipped switches and pulled wires with the other. "You have to promise not to move until I've disconnected you from everything, okay? I don't want you to hurt yourself."

She nodded slowly. Why were there so many machines? What had he been doing to her? She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

He removed his hands from her, holding them in the air to show he meant her no harm. Then he turned off the last of the machines and removed the IV from her arm.

She backed away from him so quickly she knocked over some equipment, sending it crashing to the floor. The moment she stood, her head swam. She dropped to the floor and cowered against a cabinet, clutching her elbow where she had rammed the equipment. What would she do? Where would she go? If she couldn't stand … would she be trapped with him forever? What did he want with her?

"Penny." He knelt next to her. "It's okay." He reached toward her but she jerked back. "It's okay."

And then, as she looked up at him, into his face, she had the strangest feeling they had sat like this before – her on the ground, looking up at him as he knelt beside her… She realized that it had been at the opening of the new homeless shelter. Captain Hammer had been there. Dr. Horrible had appeared, and his death ray had exploded. She'd been hit by debris.

Penny felt her chest and her stomach, searching for wounds, but there were none, though she could feel rough scars underneath the hospital gown she wore.

"It's okay," said the man again. "You've been healed. You're all right."

She looked up into his face, remembering how she'd felt that day when she'd seen him leaning over her: relief and some happiness. But she hadn't seen Dr. Horrible then, she'd seen someone else. " _B-Billy?_ " That couldn't be right. This man couldn't be both her friend Billy from the laundromat and Dr. Horrible. She was so confused. Why couldn't she make sense of things?

The man nodded at her and smiled. "It's all right," he said again. "Here." He pulled the goggles from his head, revealing his whole face. He was looking more and more like the guy she'd known. He held out his gloved hands to her. "It's all right." Tentatively, she put her hands in his. "Come on." He stood, gently pulling her up with him.

She looked around her. The cabinet she'd taken shelter against was the beginnings of a kitchen. But to the left of that was the strange gathering of vials and machines and the metal table. There were strange equations and sketches on a dry erase board on the far wall, none of which made any sense to her, though she caught her name written in the middle of one. Immediately to her left was a desk upon which sat a computer and a web cam. The desk was cluttered with papers and odd gadgets. Above it was a pin board covered in newspaper clippings.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"This?" he said. "This … is my home." He stepped to the wall, leaving her side for a moment to draw a curtain, hiding the vials and machines and dry erase board from view. He stepped back to her, took her arm, and turned her around. "See?"

She could view the kitchen more fully now, along with the small dining table within. There was a sliding glass door behind it that led out onto a balcony. To the right was a door, presumably leading to a bedroom. Continuing her gaze, she found the bathroom – its door being open. There was the living area with a loveseat and television. It was just a normal apartment.

But then… she turned to look at the man beside her. She couldn't reconcile the apartment with the science lab she knew hid behind the curtain any more than she could reconcile Billy the laundry buddy with Dr. Horrible.

"Oh!" he said, as though he had heard her thoughts. "Here." He shucked off the black rubber gloves on his hands. Then he unbuttoned the science coat and threw it off, revealing a t-shirt and jeans underneath. "There." He smiled.

Now, there could be no confusion. "Billy?"

"Yeah," he nodded, still smiling.

She threw her arms around him, surprising both of them by the gesture. It was so good to see him, even if she couldn't understand why. Something horrible had happened to her at the shelter opening … something she didn't understand. But she knew Billy was somehow tied up in it.

She pulled away from him. "What happened to me?"

His smile faded. "You-uh … you were…" He looked anywhere but at her face.

"Billy," she insisted.

He took a deep breath, then grimaced. "What do you remember?"

She pressed a hand to her head. It was hard to make sense of things.

"Maybe try talking it out," he suggested.

She took a deep breath and then turned from him to pace the room. He reached for her as though worried she wasn't ready for that much physical activity, but her legs didn't falter and her head didn't swim.

"I was at the opening for the homeless shelter," she told him. "Captain Hammer was making a speech." One that had offended her, she remembered. "Then Dr. Horrible appeared." She turned to look at him, her eyes going to the science coat on the floor. Dr. Horrible's outfit had been white, not red. But those goggles…

She shook her head and resumed pacing. She needed to remember. "He had a ray gun of some sort and he started firing it and singing–" Something about the song had unnerved her … something he had said, but she couldn't think of what. "He was going to kill Captain Hammer, but then Captain Hammer overpowered him and – and when he fired the gun, it…"

It had exploded, bits of it flying. She felt again for the wounds that weren't there. And then the image came to her again of Billy leaning over her… At least, she thought it had been Billy. Part of her was sure it had been, but her mind held the image of Dr. Horrible. Had Billy been beside her and then Dr. Horrible had pushed him out of the way?

She looked at Billy again and the coat on the floor. No, there was something else … something in the song Dr. Horrible had sung… He had said, "Billy Buddy," her nickname for him.

"You  _are_  Dr. Horrible?" she asked. The thought sounded crazy. But it was rattling in her head, and she needed to get it out. At most, she hoped he'd dismiss it. But the coat and the lab…

He didn't dismiss it. Instead he rocked on his feet and cleared his throat. "Is … is that what you remember?"

"I don't know what I remember!" she told him, putting her hands to her face. Nothing made sense. But then she thought of something. She lowered her hands and stepped forward, pushing aside Billy's arms as he had come to comfort her. She crossed the room to the desk where she gazed at the newspaper clippings above it.

At last she found what she was looking for – a clipping with an image of Dr. Horrible. He was wearing the white lab coat, the goggles, and Billy's face.

Somehow, having the clipping in her hands made it more real. This was a picture someone had taken. This was more certain than her confused mind that brought up foggy images she wasn't sure of.

"It  _is_  you," she told him, terrified for the first time since waking up on that table. "What do you want? What do you want with me?"

"Penny," he said, raising his hands, his palms open in peace. He took a step toward her.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted at him, throwing down the clipping. He continued advancing toward her, and she backed up into the wall against a dresser where she dropped to the floor and cowered beside it. "Leave me alone! What do you want with me?" Her thoughts turned to the lab, to those machines and vials, and tears formed in her eyes. "What did you do to me? What did you do?" She cried into her arms, blocking the image of him as he came closer.

She was trapped here, trapped forever, she was sure of it. He would keep her to use in his vile experiments. That must have been why he'd befriended her at the laundromat – he'd been looking for someone to lure in, someone he could take home and experiment on, someone no one would miss. She fit the profile perfectly… all except for Captain Hammer. But he hadn't come, he hadn't saved her. Maybe he didn't know where she was. Maybe Dr. Horrible had defeated him.

She rocked back and forth. She wouldn't stay here. She wouldn't be a lab rat. She'd fight him. She'd escape. But she knew that was just wishful thinking. What could she do against a super villain? He'd have his way with her, and when she was no longer useful, he'd kill her. She'd seen the cruelty of the world, and that was how it worked. She couldn't fight against it on her own. No one could.

Eventually, she felt a tapping on her arm and she looked up to see, not a weapon he would use to kill her or a needle to sedate her, but a box of tissues.

She took it, surprised, unsure whether or not to say thank you. She dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose while Billy – Dr. Horrible – whoever the hell he was – well, he looked like Billy at the moment in those clothes – sat in the chair at his desk. He swiveled it to face her. He had a collection of newspaper clippings in his hands. "You okay?"

She didn't know what to tell him. Of course she wasn't okay. She'd just realized her best friend was a super villain. Yet, he hadn't tied her to the table, and he hadn't tried to kill her or knock her out. So she supposed, for the moment, she was fine. She gave a nod of her head.

"Good." He gave a sigh, then swung his chair a little. "You should … you should read these." He handed her the first of the clippings in his hands.

It was titled "Country Mourns Whats-Her-Name" and had a picture of her face. The article went on to talk about her work at the shelter, her relationship with Captain Hammer, and the night she had died.

She looked at him. "The whole country thinks I'm dead?" she asked him. "What, you–? You took my body away, and healed me in secret, and now everyone thinks I'm dead?"

Billy shook his head and handed her the second article. It was her obituary with the date and location of her open-casket viewing and burial.

"I don't understand," she told him.

"You were dead," he said. "You  _died_." He stood from the chair and handed her the rest of the articles.

She shuffled through them. There were ones on Dr. Horrible joining the Evil League of Evil, on the ELE's attempts to take over the city, on Captain Hammer's mysterious disappearance. The articles were dated weeks, even months, after her supposed "death."

How could she possibly have died? She was alive now, wasn't she? Dead people didn't just come back to life. The image of the machines and the vials nagged at her.

"The night you died," said Billy, taking up the area where she had paced and doing the same. "I got everything I ever wanted, but in doing so … I lost the thing I care about most." He paused and looked at her. There was such sadness in his eyes.

He resumed pacing again. "I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I went through each day like I was dreaming through it." He waved at the clippings in her hands. "You saw the headlines. No one cared what happened to you. They didn't even know your name. I … I couldn't let them burry you like that, around people who didn't care. So, I switch your body with a dummy. And I brought you back here."

He paced a few turns before speaking again. "I didn't really have a plan. I thought maybe I'd give you a proper send off. Say some nice words and then burry you myself. I told myself I needed time to find the right thing to say, so I hooked you up to those machines, closed your wounds, kept your blood flowing, your organs going. And then it just … it became something else."

He paused, then sighed. He stepped into the next room, the wall blocking him from her vision. Then he returned with a rolled newspaper in his hand. "That's today's," he said, handing it to her.

She dropped the clippings, then removed the rubber band from the paper and unrolled it. The date on it was two years and three months after her death.

_Two years …_

Could it be possible? Could she have been dead all that time? It didn't make sense. How could he have possibly brought her back to life? No, it was more likely she'd been sedated all that time, forced to sleep for forever… wasn't it? But then, what motivation would he have to do such a thing? Why make up a story about bringing her back from the dead if it wasn't true? Was it some ploy to keep her cooperative? Did he think she'd be more willing to his experiments if she thought they would be done to keep her alive? ... It seemed too convoluted a plot. Yet, the alternative...

She looked up at him as he sat back down in the desk chair. "I didn't plan on trying to … bring you back. I'd made progress toward it before I realized I'd made the decision." He let out a breath of laughter and smiled. "It is so good to see you again."

She stared at him. So he'd befriended her because he'd actually liked her? And then, once she'd died... All of this sounded too crazy to believe. She could  _not_ have been brought back from the dead. It wasn't medically possible. But before she could express her doubts, his phone rang with a catchy little jingle.

Billy stood quickly and answered it, striding to the other side of the apartment so she could overhear the voice on the other end of the line. "This is he," said Billy. "Yes… Yes, but I… I understand… Yes. I'll be right there." He ended the call.

He stepped to the lab coat he had left on the floor and picked it up, along with his gloves and goggles. He started putting the outfit on over his normal clothes.

"Billy–" she started, unsure of what she meant to say.

"I'll be back," he said, pulling his arm through a sleeve of the coat. "I've got to do something first." He pulled on a glove and started for the door.

Penny pushed herself up from the floor and headed after him. "Are you going to hurt someone?"

He paused at the door, and looked back at her. "I'll be back," he said again. "Just … just wait here. I have to go." He adjusted the goggles on his head with one hand, then pulled the door open and stepped outside.

The door closed behind him, leaving her alone in nothing but a hospital gown, in the strange apartment of a man she barely knew, and in a city that had forgotten her existence over two years ago.


	2. Chapter 2

Penny decided the first thing she needed, besides answers, were clothes. She rummaged around Billy's bedroom until she found a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt. They were both too big for her, but a belt secured the pants and she didn't mind that the shirt was baggy. Anything was better than the drafty hospital gown.

Next, she decided she wanted something to eat. But if she'd been dead for two years, would her stomach remember how to process food? Billy had said he'd kept her organs running – had he given her stomach material to process? Was she starting to believe this crazy story of his?

She stepped to the refrigerator, found an apple, took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. Everything seemed to go down fine. And then, after a few minutes without any sign her stomach hadn't cared for her offering, she selected a few more items from the fridge and sat down at Billy's computer desk where she ate and poured over the various newspaper clippings.

Things had gotten bad over the past two years, really bad. Without Captain Hammer to protect the city, crime had doubled in just a few days. The city's police were overworked, and in many cases, Los Angeles citizens had to protect themselves. There were several cries of help for Captain Hammer, but he never appeared.

And then, as the Evil League of Evil made attempts to take over the city, a new hero had emerged. He didn't have any super powers, but he had a way with speech. Overnight, he had persuaded the people to stand up for themselves and rally against the forces trying to destroy them. For over a year, this hero, dubbed The Voice, had helped the city hold back the League and its henchmen.

But it was only a matter of time before The Voice was found and killed. There had been many security measures put in place to keep him safe, but they had failed. Without their leader, the people scattered and succumbed to the League. It had been two months since the League's takeover, two months of the city's citizens living in fear. And things had fallen back into chaos, just as it had been before the Voice's appearance.

Penny rubbed her hands over her face. She couldn't believe that Captain Hammer would leave the city to its own defenses. Nor could she believe that Billy, as a member of the League, was a part of the city's fall. That wasn't the guy she had known at the laundromat. But then, how well could she have truly gotten to know him?

She sighed, and even though she thought she had learned all she could, she went back to the clippings, just in case she'd missed something. And once she'd finished, she unfolded today's paper. It was full of ELE propaganda.

As she was skimming the paper, she heard the front door open. "Billy?" she called. No answer.

She put the paper down slowly. As she stood from the chair, a man with a mop of black hair and a sweaty face peered around the corner.

She screamed and backed up toward the wall.

He screamed as well, backing away from her.

They exchanged screams back and forth until they realized the other person was just as afraid of them as they were of the other person.

"Oh, my, god," said the man, dropping the mail he held. "He did it! He actually did it!"

Penny stared at him. Who was this strange person? To her horror, he started walking toward her.

"You-you're-you're alive! You're standing – walking!" he added as she backed up from him.

"Leave me alone," she begged him.

"You can talk!" he said. When she backed away further he held up his hands. "No! No, it's okay. I-I'm Dr. Horrible's henchmen – uh, friend! B-Billy's friend." He smiled at her. When she continued to stare, he added. "My name's M-Moist – Simon! You can call me Simon."

"So," she said, still unsure. "You just barge into people's apartments?"

"No!" he laughed. "Gods, no. Th-the door was open, so I assumed Dr. – Billy was home. He hasn't let me come by in a while. He said you were in critical stages." He stared at her like she was some kind of experiment.

And, she supposed in a way, she was. "So, I was dead," she said, voicing it out loud more to convince herself than to explain to Simon. "For two years."

"More or less," said Simon, his eyes running over her.

"Please, stop starring at me."

He jumped. "Sorry! Sorry!" He bent to pick up the mail and then handed it to her. "It's just, uh, you look great for a – for a dead girl." He gave a nervous laugh.

She wasn't sure how to respond, so she took the mail from him and dropped it onto the desk.

Simon rocked on his feet. "So, uh, where is Billy?"

"I don't know." Penny shrugged. "His phone rang, and he ran out."

"Oh!" said Simon, excitedly. He pulled out his own phone and almost dropped it, his hands were so slick. It was warm outside, but Penny found it odd he was sweating so badly. "Did it sound like this?" He played back the catchy jingle.

"Yes," she told him.

Simon pumped his arms in victory. "Oh, this is great! This is …  _great_! It's the League!" he added to her befuddled look. "He's been in such bad straights with them since … well, since he began his experiments with you." He grimaced in apology. "He was so preoccupied - missing meetings, not showing up to raids, forgetting plans … they've been ready to drop him these past few weeks since he's locked himself in here. This might be his only chance to get back in their good graces."

Penny turned away from him and studied the news clippings on the wall. She'd much rather they did drop him. She couldn't accept the Evil League of Evil as something to aspire to. She wished Billy wasn't one of them.

"Hey," said Simon carefully as he noticed her sour look. "It's just a job, right?"

"It's extortion," she said, not looking at him.

He fidgeted. "Now, come on." He didn't sound confident of his ability to convince her. "It's not like that. It's …" But he could think of no explanation to give her. "He's crazy about you," he said at last. "He's given up nearly everything to bring you back."

Penny shook her head. Somehow, her life always turned out like this. Someone she'd trusted, someone she'd cared for, had turned out to be someone not worth having around. She'd thought Billy to be a friend, only to discover he was working to hurt the people she'd tried to help. And it wouldn't just be the homeless who suffered in these dark times – everyone would.

She felt Simon's hand on her shoulder. "Give him a chance," he pleaded. "He's a good guy."

She shrugged Simon's hand off her. Couldn't Billy see the harm he was doing? Did he not care? So what, if he'd brought her back to life? If she was the only innocent person he cared about… what did that one good deed amount to amongst a sea of bad ones? She couldn't see him using what he'd learned from reviving her to save other people's lives. He never would have helped her if she hadn't been important to him. No, he wasn't in the business of generosity, just the business of self-fulfillment, just like Captain Hammer had been.

She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice when Simon left.

 

 

Penny walked the ruined streets of Los Angeles. No one had seen Captain Hammer for years. No one even knew if he was still in the city. But he had taken her to his place before, even shown her his secret lair. If anyone could find him, Penny was certain she could.

She just wasn't certain her decision to walk the streets alone had been a good idea. She hadn't been able to wait until Billy got back. She was sure he wouldn't want her to find Captain Hammer. And if she was truthful, she wasn't sure she wanted to see Billy again, not now that she knew who he was.

Still, some company on the streets would have been better than going alone. There was litter everywhere. Certain areas were starting to smell from unattended garbage. And evidence of looting was apparent - smashed windows, broken doors, trails of unwanted goods leading from entrances …

The city wasn't safe anymore. And the more Penny walked it, the more she was certain someone needed to step up and help. She couldn't do it on her own, and Billy wouldn't help her, not when he was part of what had caused this. She needed Captain Hammer.

Their relationship hadn't been the greatest - she could see through his pony smiles and half-truths now as she looked back on their time together. She'd always been a little uneasy around him. Maybe, somehow, part of her had known he wasn't what he'd appeared to be. But she'd told herself it was just nerves from letting herself be open enough to fall in love. She'd gotten caught up in the idea of it all - in having not only someone love her but  _help_ her and to seem to  _want_ to help her help others. Everything had been perfect -  _too_ perfect. And his display at the opening of the shelter had revealed him to her for what he truly was… even if no one else had realized it.

Still, part of her felt he  _had_ cared for her, on some level at least. Hadn't he mentioned he had been with her the longest out of all his previous girlfriends? That had to count for something. If nothing else, it seemed proof enough she was the one person in the whole city with the greatest chance of talking him around…  _If_  she managed to reach his apartment in one piece.

She had just resolved herself to putting her head down and walking as quickly as possible when a man stepped out from a side alley holding a knife.

"Hey, pretty lady," he smiled.

Penny backed away from. "Please. I-I don't have anything." It was true. If she'd had cash, she would have taken a cab instead of walking... not that a cab was any safer than the streets. But she had no wallet, no credit cards, no form of ID. She just had the clothes on her back and the shoes she'd pilfered from Billy's closet that sloshed back and forth on her feet because they were too big - even when she'd worn an extra pair of socks in an attempt to fill them.

"That's all right," said the man, advancing toward her. His teeth were yellow, his eyes wide, his facial hair long and scruffy like he hadn't shaved for days. "You can …" His eyes flicked over her body. "Repay me in other ways."

"No. Please." Penny backed up until she hit a wall.

The man laughed as he continued to advance, knowing as she did that she had nowhere to go.

Penny closed her eyes, not wanting to witness what the man was about to do to her.

There came a cry, one that wasn't hers or the man's. Penny opened her eyes to see that someone had come to her rescue. She had red hair and a small frame, like Penny's, but she stood up to the man.

"Why not pick on someone who can fight back?" she asked. She swung her leg and punched the air, demonstrating some form of martial arts.

The man hesitated. The girl might know how to fight, but he had a knife and she was otherwise unarmed.

Just then, two other figures leapt from the shadows. Another small-framed girl with dark hair, and a large blonde man. Penny's attacker, seeing he was outnumbered, turned and ran.

"Are you all right?" asked the red-headed girl as she came over to Penny.

Penny nodded. "Th-thank you," she managed once she'd found her voice again.

The girl shrugged. "It's easy when you make it look like you know what you're doing – which I do." She gestured behind her, beckoning her friends toward her. "And numbers help. This is Maurissa." She put an arm around the dark haired girl, then gestured behind her with her free hand. "And that's Steve. I'm Stacy."

"Hi," said Penny. "And thanks again."

Stacy shrugged. "Don't mention it." She removed her arm from around Maurissa's shoulders. "Although, you know, you really shouldn't be walking around the city by yourself."

Penny nodded. "I know. I just – I really need to get to my friend's house."

Stacy stared at her.

"It's important." Penny explained.

Stacy looked at her friends, then back at Penny. "Where are you headed? Maybe we can escort you."

Penny smiled, and soon the group was off, keeping visible and out of easy reach of those looking to do them harm by walking down the middle of the deserted street. Their tactic wouldn't do much to protect against super villains, but then, as Maurissa pointed out, if they were looking for you, they'd find you. Regardless, they made it to Captain Hammer's apartment complex without incident.

"Hey," said Stacy as they approached. "Isn't that Captain Hammer's place?" She looked back at her friends. "No one's seen him for years…"

They all looked at Penny.

Maurissa gasped and jumped back into Steve. "Oh, my, god! I know you! You're that girl from the shelter! You're his girlfriend!" Stacy left Penny's side to stand amongst her friends as Maurissa cried, "Ghost!"

"No!" said Penny. "I'm not a ghost!" She placed a hand on Stacy's arm to prove she was solid. "I'm –"

"Poltergeist!"

"No!" Penny cried as the group turned and ran away from her. "Please!"

But they ran without turning back. Was that how she could expect everyone to treat her? Like she was some spirit that haunted the city? Searching for her lover who had long since disappeared?

Sighing, she turned to face the apartment complex. It seemed to have held up better than some other buildings she had passed. There were still smashed windows and graffiti on the walls. It had the same tired look as the rest of the city, but at least it appeared mostly clean. With any luck, there wouldn't be a serial killer lying in wait for her around some corner.

She pushed open the security gate – the key pad members were supposed to punch the security code into no longer worked. Captain Hammer's apartment was on the first floor, so she didn't have to go far. She was surprised to find the door ajar.

The apartment itself was a wreck. Anything worth anything was gone. Cabinets had been ripped out of the wall, carpet had been torn from the floor, and the only evidence there had been any appliances were shadows of darkened paint on the walls. Everything was gone… Everything except a bookshelf in what had formerly been Captain Hammer's study.

There were deep gouges on the floor and on the legs of the bookshelf where people had tried to pry it away. The books held scratches, but they too remained. The bookshelf and its contents had refused to be removed, no matter how hard people had tried to take it.

Penny stepped forward and tried to remember the correct book to allow entrance into the secret lair. Eventually, she found it on the second shelf from the top. The fifth book from the left was the only one that would budge, and the entire bookshelf slid to the right to reveal a descending staircase.

Penny descended slowly, listening for any indication that someone was down there. Would Captain Hammer be there? Or had he fled the city completely? Was it possible someone else had found the secret book and the lair was now occupied by unsavory people she wouldn't want to encounter?

Or maybe a group of homeless lived down there, and she could join them? After all, it wasn't like she had a home anymore or a job, and she didn't know if staying with Billy was an option. Maybe even while being homeless herself, she could still find ways to help. She had nothing to lose, at any rate.

She received a shock when reaching the landing. All of Captain Hammer's special items were still there. His uniform hung in a glass case against the wall. On the far side of the room sat a large station of computers, which Hammer had used as a command center to communicate with police and monitor criminal activity through social media. Beyond that, hardly able to be made out from where she stood, sat the Hammer Cycle and the Hammer Jet.

Directly in front of her sat everything that had been ripped out of the apartment above. The luxury couch, seventy-two inch television, and the extensive DVD collection made a nice sitting area, the floor covered with ripped up carpet. The kitchen counters and appliances had been moved against the wall down from the sitting area. And standing in front of the microwave in a white bathrobe was talk, dark, and handsome – Captain Hammer himself.

The microwave dinged. He removed the previously frozen dinner from it, then turned and dropped the tray when he caught sight of her. "P-Penny?"

"Hey," was all she could think to say.

He stared at her in much the same way Stacy, Maurissa, and Steven had – like he'd seen a ghost. "But … you died."

She shifted on her feet. The explanation still seemed too crazy to her. "Dr. Horrible brought me back."

"Oh." The fear dropped from his face, like that was the only explanation he needed. He stooped down, picked up his dinner, and carried it over to the sofa. He sat down to view reruns of himself beating up the city's criminals.

"So…" she said when she realized he wasn't paying her any further attention. "So, you've been hiding down here all this time?"

"Yep." He took a bite of what might have been Salisbury steak. Then he let out a laugh. "Have you seen it up there? Whoo! It is  _much_  better down here." He went back to his steak.

"But you're the city's hero," she told him, walking around the couch to face him. "You are supposed to protect it."

He looked up at her, his face serious. "Do you know what pain is, Penny?"

"Of course I do," she said.

He shook his head. "Terrible feeling." He laughed again and pointed at the ceiling. "Up there, there are plenty of chances to feel it." He took another bite of dinner. "I am  _not_ doing that again."

She stared at him. What was he talking about? People felt pain everyday. How could that be the reason he wouldn't protect the town?

"You felt pain?" she asked, trying to get him to explain.

"Never did before," he said, still intent on his dinner. "But that day at the shelter opening –" He shook his fork at her like it was her fault. "That death ray exploded and –" The color drained from his face. "It was the most terrible feeling …  _all_ over." He stared over her shoulder, his eyes growing wide with fear at something that wasn't there. Then he gasped. "This will completely undo my counseling."

He stood from the sofa and walked briskly to the counter where he picked up a phone and began dialing a number. Peggy was still trying to wrap her mind around what he'd just told her. He'd never felt pain  _ever_?

"Hello, Dr. Wellington?" said Hammer into the phone. "I think I'm having a slight relapse. I'm going to need to schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience."

So what, if that had been the first time he'd felt pain? Sure, it must have been a traumatic experience. But to hide away down here just to avoid experiencing what normal people felt every single day? She had a hard time feeling sorry for him. People were being hurt. People were  _dying_. Their lives were worse because he wouldn't help.

"You can't just stay down here," she told him once he hung up the phone. "People need you."

"They seem to have gotten along just fine without me," he said as he strode over to her.

"Do you even know what's going on up there?" She wouldn't be surprised if he watched reruns of himself all day everyday.

"No," he admitted with a smile. "That's why I'm down here. In fact –" He took her arms, pulling her toward him. "What would you say about staying down here with me? You seemed to enjoy that one night we had." He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

That one night was not on her top list of memories. "People need your help," she minded him.

He dropped her arms and rolled his eyes, as though she had completely spoiled the moment. "Why don't you help them, then?" he asked, striding back to the couch. "If I remember, that was your ex-per-tise."

She stared at him as he sat back down. "I don't have any super powers. How could I possibly stand up to the ELE? How could I stop Bad Horse?" She'd be splattered in a matter of seconds.

Captain Hammer studied her for a few moments, then leaned back in his seat. "What if I could give you my super powers?"

Her mouth dropped open. That was the last thing she would have expected him to say. "You can do that?"

"Maybe," he said, abandoning the sofa to walk into a small room that held his sleeping area. Penny made a point of not going into it. At last, he emerged with a green, glowing hammer. "I was found with this when I was child. I've been told it hit me on the noggin'." He tapped his head. "I don't remember anything before that, but the theory is this is what gave me my super powers." He flipped it in the air, and Penny took a step back to avoid it. "It's drenched in plutonium." He held it out to her. "Want to touch it?"

She shook her head.

"Shame," he said in mock disappointment. "I guess we'll never know." He turned to head back into the room.

"Wait!" she said. " _That_ will give me super powers?"

He shrugged. "I don't really know." He didn't see much concerned about it either. "No one else has ever touched it. They were all too afraid of it." He held it out to her again. "But if you're so eager to save the city…"

It was like he was taunting her with a choice: risk radioactive death, or stay in the lair with him. There was no way she was staying with him, even if she did decide not to touch the hammer. But could it really grant her super powers? And if it did, was she the right person to have them? Surely, there was someone else better suited for this… But the city had been crying out for a super hero for years. If she didn't answer the call for help, who would?

But what if it didn't grant her super powers? What if it killed her? Well, she'd died once all ready, right? How bad could it be the second time around?

Captain Hammer smiled at her, confident she had already made her choice. He turned again to leave, but Penny reached out and grabbed the hammer by the head.

Green light filled her vision and she shot backwards through the air. She hit the ground with a force that should have at least knocked her out, but she picked herself up she'd fallen onto a cushioned surface. No part of her was scratched. Nothing was even sore.

She looked down at her body in disbelief. Something had to be broken at least. Maybe something was, she was just in too much shock to notice.

But then she turned around and saw the dent her body had made in the concrete.

Captain Hammer walked up to her, throwing the hammer casually into the air as he walked. "Hm." He said once he took in the hole she had made. Then he turned, like it was of no consequence and went back to his spot on the sofa.

Penny kept staring at her hands. She flexed her fingers, and then – just to give herself another crazy thing to do today – she turned to the concrete wall beside her and punched it.

Her hand went right through, like it had been paper. Her knuckles wouldn't so much as bruise.

She withdrew her hand and looked back at Captain Hammer to see if he cared about the destruction she'd brought upon his home. But he was too busy laughing at the image on the screen of himself punching the daylights out of a super villain.

"I love this part!" he said, slapping his knee.

Penny looked around her at the command center, the Hammer Jet, the cycle. Then she glanced back at the staircase that led up into the city.

She  _had_ super powers…


	3. Chapter 3

**ACT II**

"You left her alone?"

" _You_ left her alone!" said Moist, holding up his hands in defense. "I didn't think my leaving would be a problem. Besides, you haven't let me in for weeks! I shouldn't have been in here in the first place."

Billy spun away from him. He knew he shouldn't be mad at Moist. It was his own fault Penny had left. He'd run off without giving her enough of an explanation. Who knew what she thought of him? Who knew how well she could grasp two years of change within the city? Was it any wonder she had run off, perhaps to find answers of her own?

But the city wasn't safe. What if something happened to her? What if something already had? He paced the room. "She could be anywhere," he said. There were a number of places he could think of her going – the shelter, her old apartment, the city park – but those places weren't safe anymore. When she found them in such disarray, would she look for shelter elsewhere? And if so ... well, then he was out of ideas.

"Look," said Moist with a shrug. "I can pull some favors with the Henchmen Union. I could get a group of us to go out looking for her."

Billy nodded in thought. That might not be a bad idea. An image came to his mind of Penny backing up against a wall as henchmen surrounded her. She'd be terrified. But they wouldn't hurt her, and they'd bring her home safe.

If she even wanted to come "home" to him... But a two-years-dead girl couldn't just wander around the streets of Los Angeles. She'd get herself hurt, or worse. No, they had to bring her home. They'd talk, they'd figure something out.

Billy sighed. "All right," he said, turning to Moist. "We'll go with your plan."

Moist sighed, perhaps glad the fault was no longer being placed on him. "So…" he said as he grappled for his phone, the item slipping between his fingers. "How did the raid go?"

Billy sighed again. "It was a bust." The League was in need of the city's supply of wonderflonium. It was all part of their plan to secure their hold on the city, then work their ultimate goal of world domination – one state and one country at a time, of course.

But the LAPD had been meticulous in making sure the League didn't get their hands on the wonderflonium. As far as the ELE could tell, the flonium was being stored in the city's abandoned underground tunnels.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the city of Los Angeles had built tunnels for horse drawn carriages, trolley trains, and later the first automobiles to help control traffic and also better connect the city through the various hills that dotted it. By the mid 1900s, someone had the brilliant idea of leveling the hills to circumvent the hassle of tunneling through them. The hills were gone now, but eleven miles of tunnel still existed beneath the city streets, all closed to the public due to earthquake safety regulations.

But the ELE had certain intelligence that the wonderflonium was down those tunnels somewhere. The only problem was the eleven miles of tunnel weren't connected. There were several pockets scattered across the city, and their entrances were well hidden. Finding their exact locations had proven tricky, and the unkempt state of the tunnels themselves had made searching difficult. What was more, it was said city officials still used those tunnels, and Billy was starting to fear the LAPD was one step ahead of them, anticipating their moves and transferring the wonderflonium to different locations before the League could get their hands on it.

What if the flonium was in a tunnel they had already searched? What if their intelligence was bad and this was all a giant goose chase? Billy shook his head. He knew he shouldn't have such thoughts. He'd been questioning the League a lot recently, and he knew most of it had to do with his involvement with Penny. The ELE just hadn't seemed to be that much of priority, even though two years ago he would have, and had, given everything to be a part of it.

It was time he got back into his previous mindset. Penny was alive. He had time now to pick up the life he'd set aside while trying to revive her.

As if on cue, Billy's phone rang with the Bad Horse jingle. There was a message from Bad Horse's chorus. There'd be another raid tonight, this time with good intel. They'd have the wonderflonium for sure.

Billy sighed when he ended the call. Despite his most recent pep talk with himself, this still felt like a waste of time.

"You're going, aren't you?" asked Moist.

"Of course, I'm going," he replied, but he sounded less than enthusiastic as he put his phone back in his pocket.

Moist stepped in front of him, hands on his hips. Billy stared. He'd never seen his henchman act so defiant. "Look," he said. "Whatever has gotten into you, you need to get over it. We will find Penny. In the meantime," he pointed at the red science coat and dark goggles that hung on a hook by Billy's lab. "You need to do what you do best."

Billy stared at the coat. He didn't  _feel_ like being Dr. Horrible put him at his best lately.

Moist took the coat off the hook and threw it at Billy. "You know what your problem is? You've gotten caught up on that girl. You've spent so much time trying to save Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes that you've forgotten what it's like to be evil."

Billy swung the coat behind him as he slid his arms into the sleeves. Maybe Moist was right. Maybe he just didn't feel Dr. Horrible-y because he hadn't truly been Dr. Horrible-y in a very long time.

Moist threw the goggles at him. Then pointed both his index fingers and his thumbs outward with his remaining fingers curled in, his hands making little guns. "Who's got a Ph.D. in Horribleness?"

Billy actually chuckled at the old catch phrase. He fixed his goggles over his eyes. Already, he was starting to feel more like his old self. Maybe the raid tonight would go well and he would remember what being truly evil felt like.

 

 

Penny had never driven a motorcycle before. She'd ridden on the back of them a number of times – several of those being with an ex-boyfriend before Captain Hammer – but she'd never actually been upfront. In truth, she hadn't been sure she'd like sitting in the driver's seat.

But now, as she rode from Captain Hammer's secret lair on the Hammer Cycle, she found herself enjoying the thrill. Watching the road zip by her was way more fun that burying her face in the back of whomever she had her arms around as a passenger.

The balancing hadn't been difficult to figure out, nor had the shifting. But as she came upon a group of fighting Los Angeles citizens, she realized she wasn't sure how to stop. As she panicked and lost her balance, the cycle tilted and began to skid. Penny leapt from the vehicle, doing a kind of tumble as she hit the asphalt. As she scrambled to her feet, she hoped her dive had looked more impressive than it had felt.

Surveying the scene, she realized she was looking at the small group that had escorted her to Hammer's apartment. They were standing with their backs to each other. Maurissa held a knife, but Steve and Stacy held up fists. Penny wondered if Steve actually knew how to fight or if he was just trying to look intimidating.

They were surrounded by a group of five – three men and two women – all of whom held knives. Penny took a deep breath and stepped forward in an attempt to defuse the situation. "Back away from them," she said in the most commanding voice she could muster.

The larger group turned to her. "Who the hell are you?" asked one of the men.

Penny had donned Captain Hammer's uniform. Her only modifications were yellow gloves and a yellow band of fabric with two holes over her eyes. It tied in the back underneath her hair.

She realized she didn't have an answer to the man's question. While she'd put some thought into her look, she hadn't thought to come up with a name for herself.

"Get out of here, Hammer Girl!" cried Stacy.

_Hammer Girl._  She probably wouldn't have chosen it herself, but it had a kind of ring to it. In any case, it worked. And there were more pressing matters to attend to than arguing over what her name should be.

Penny rolled her fists, taking on a fighting stance. The knife group moved toward her. Penny punched at a dark haired man as he approached. He ducked her arm and slashed at her stomach. She felt the knife roll across her skin.

_Damn it!_ She really wasn't cut out for this! But she had started something, so now she had to finish it.

She swung her leg at the man who had swiped at her. She managed to make contact with his head, and he went down. She turned and punched at the next attacker. Her fist met his stomach and he fell back into the person behind him.

She dropped to the ground as attacker number four came at her. She swung her leg in an effort to trip them and was surprised when it worked. Never before would she have been able to work up that much force in her legs. Her super strength and agility had to be helping in ways she didn't fully understand.

The fifth attacker jumped on her back. Penny grabbed their arm holding the knife before they could use it and flung them over her head. They landed on their back on the asphalt. She spun around again, ready for the next attack, but the group of five were gathering each other up … and then running away.

Penny smiled. Maybe this superhero stuff wasn't so hard after all. Then she remembered her stomach. She looked down at her shirt, feeling around for the wound.

"Do you need help?" cried Maurissa, running over. "I'm a nurse!" She knelt in front of Penny and pulled up her shirt only to find there was no evidence of knife to have ever touched the skin. "Oh," she said, lowering the shirt. "Captain Hammer's super resistance." She stood and stared at Penny. "You're the real deal then?"

Penny nodded. "It would seem so."

Maurissa looked embarrassed. "We thought you were…"

"Some kid trying to act like a superhero," finished Stacy as she walked over. "People have gotten themselves killed posing as superheroes trying to scare away the bad guys."

Steve joined them, and they all stared at her. Penny hadn't thought the yellow ribbon had been good enough as a disguise, but they didn't seem to recognize her from before. At least, they weren't screaming and running from her.

"Tho," said Steve. He had a lisp, and his S's sounded like TH's. "Your Captain Hammer'th protégé?"

"Something like that," Penny said.

She had no idea what she was supposed to do now. Something superhero-y? Like telling them she had more people to rescue and ride off down the street? She looked over her shoulder to see the Hammer Cycle had come to a stop alongside a building next to a dumpster. It was laying on its side but appeared otherwise unharmed.

"I guess he didn't teach you how to fight, huh?" asked Stacey with an apologetic look on her face.

Penny grimaced. "Was I that bad?"

Stacey grimaced in answer. "If it wasn't for your super strength and agility, you couldn't have taken them out. Here." She held out her hand.

Penny took it, and then found herself looking up at the sky and laying on her back as Stacey flipped her over her shoulder.

"Stacey!" cried Maurissa in surprise.

Penny watched as Stacey's stern face came into her field of vision. "We need a real superhero," she said. "Not some idiot like Captain Hammer who bailed at the first sign of trouble." She seemed angry, really angry, like this was personal. She pointed at her chest. "A little girl like me just took you out." She gestured behind her. "If those guys had known anything about fighting, you wouldn't have defeated them so easily."

Penny pushed herself up on her hands. "Will you teach me?"

Stacey blinked, Penny's response not being what she had expected. "I… yeah, yeah, I will." She held out her hand and pulled Penny to her feet. "Grab your bike, Hammer Girl. We'll show you where home is."

 

 

Home turned out to be an abandoned warehouse. Though the building itself looked like it hadn't been used for years, it held signs of recent reinforcement. The windows had been boarded up with fresh wood, the front door had a shiny new pad lock, and there were two guards with guns standing outside. They looked more like young teenagers than "guards" but their guns required two hands to hold and made up for any lack of intimidation from the kids themselves. Penny wondered if they were loaded or just for show.

They looked up at the group as Stacy, Maurissa, Steve, and Penny approached, their eyes studying the new girl. Stacy gave a nod of her head as they neared, and the guard on the left reached over to slide the door open.

Inside had to be at least a couple hundred people scattered between support pillars. They sat on sleeping bags and blankets over the concrete floor. Some, judging by their worn clothing, had been homeless for a while. Others, looked as though they had been only recently displaced from their homes. Penny understood the need for guards now – they were protecting the people inside.

Penny seemed an unwelcome guest as she received several glares as she walked through the crowd and followed the group of three in front of her. She couldn't understand where all the animosity was coming from. These were people she would have bent over backwards to help two years ago, and part of her felt like she should make some kind of heroic speech about how she was going to do so now. But their glares kept her silent until she was led up a few flights of stairs to the top floor of the building.

She'd glanced a few people living on the second floor, equipment on the third, but here at the top floor there was little more than a station of computers, some foam mats, and sleeping bags. "This is our pad," Stacey explained. "You can stay here too if you want."

Penny appreciated the offer and was seriously considering accepting, but her mind was on other things. "All those people down there…"

"They think you're some kid trying to get yourself killed," said Maurissa, sitting on her sleeping bag and taking off her shoes.

"Or you remind them too much of Captain Hammer," said Stacey. "A lot people grew bitter toward him when he didn't turn up to help."

"But I  _am_ here to help," said Penny.

"Not in your current state, you're not," said Stacey, taking Penny's hands. She led her to the foam mats and instructed Penny to take off her shoes. "I'm going to teach you how to fight."

Within moments, Stacey had thrown Penny over her shoulder again.

Penny wasn't sure what she thought of Stacey's teaching methods. Rather than tell or show Penny what she should be doing, Stacy just straight up attacked her, going with a learn-as-you-go approach. While Penny figured this method was good since the bad guys wouldn't be giving her any warning ahead of time, she still found herself at a loss as how to best circumvent Stacey's punches, kicks, and throws.

"Block!" Stacey yelled as she aimed for Penny's face.

Penny hesitated, unprepared, but her super agility made up for the time and she managed to block Stacey's punch.

"Jump!" Stacy swung out her leg in attempt to trip her.

Penny jumped over her leg easily, but then Stacey stopped giving warnings and her fist connected with Penny's chin. It barely fazed Penny, but Stacy had still proven that she wasn't paying enough attention.

"You have to be looking everywhere at once." Stacey told her.

"How do I  _do_ that?" Penny asked.

"Practice," said Stacey, and they started over.

"Give Hammer Girl a break," said Steve from the computer desk after Penny and Stacey had been at it a couple hours. The sun was beginning to fall in the sky, bathing the warehouse in orange light.

Penny wasn't tired, but she was grateful for a distraction. All the effort she had to put into concentrating on Stacey's moves was beginning to make her head hurt.

She walked over to where Steve sat. The monitors piled on the desk were all showcasing various social media channels – Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook to name a few. Directly in front of Steve was another monitor running a program Penny didn't recognize. But it seemed to be taking information from the social media platforms and organizing it into data.

"What is this?" asked Penny.

"Our thity thurveillance thythtem," said Steve proudly.

Penny stared at him. She had understood his lisp, but she didn't understand how monitoring social media counted as city surveillance.

Steve turned back to the monitors. "Anything you need to know, you can find through thocial media. People will potht anything on there."

That was true… people did seem to post the minutest details of their lives on social media. As Steve opened a window for the LAPD's twitter page, she could begin to understand how this kind of surveillance could be useful.

Penny turned to look at Stacey and Maurissa. In her mind's eye, she could see all those people downstairs. "You did all this?"

Stacey shrugged. Maurissa turned her face away and said, "We were trying to help."

When Penny waited for them to elaborate, Stacey sighed, walked to the corner of the room and pushed forward a large box. Penny dug through it. There were all sorts of memorabilia in there – tshirts, toys, photos, stickers - first of Captain Hammer, then of Dr. Horrible.

"We were groupies," Stacey explained. "We followed our idols everywhere, and when they failed us…"

"Stacey's dad's a electrician," said Maurissa pointing at the display of monitors. "She got that up and running. Steve's the computer whiz. I know how to bandage people up… It wasn't something we planned. It all just fell into place."

"When we were forced from our homes, we came here," Stacey continued. "Maurissa missed the internet. I missed my dojo. And then we found other people with nowhere to go."

"It kind of grew from there." Maurissa concluded.

"And all those people downstairs?" asked Penny.

"We don't organize them," said Maurissa. "They sort of formed their own groups and leaders for that. But our surveillance team over there –" She nodded at Steve. "He can keep track of what's going on in the city. And we use that to know when everyone needs to stay inside and when they can go out, to know where and when to search for supplies, and if we'd ever need to move everyone, we'd know that too. And they'd listen to us."

Penny was impressed. They'd done more than she would have ever been able to on her own. She looked down at her gloved hands. Maybe now she could add her own contribution, one that would change this city for the better. "So, what's next?"

"The ELE," said Steve, typing away at his keyboard. Penny walked over to him. "They are after the thity'th thupply of wonderflonium, and I'm not thure the LAPD hath the rethourthes to thtop them."

Penny took a moment to process what Steve had said. If the LAPD couldn't stop the ELE, she'd have to step up to the plate. "Where  _is_  the wonderflonium?"

"The thity tunnels."

It took a few minutes for Maurissa and Stacey to explain the research they had done on eleven miles of tunnels underneath the city.

"The LAPD has been hiding and moving the wonderflonium under the city," said Maurissa. "But the ELE is catching up with them."

"Do we know where the next hit will be?" asked Penny.

"We  _think_ we do," said Stacey as Steve pulled up a map on one of the monitors. "Social media is being pretty quiet on this one."

Penny followed Steve's finger as he traced a path behind the city's Hall of Records. "Lookth like Dr. Horrible'th going to be in on thith one," he added.

"How do you know?" asked Stacey, rising from her spot on the other side of the room.

"He updated hith blog," said Steve, clicking his mouse.

Dr. Horrible's webpage appeared on screen. He hadn't uploaded a video, but there was a simple message. "Sorry for the long hiatus! Dr. Horrible is back!"

"Weird," said Stacey. "You have a villain who spends  _years_ fighting to get into the ELE, then once he achieves his goal, it's like he doesn't want it anymore. I'm surprised the League took him back."

Penny's thoughts wondered over Stacey's words. She'd known Billy's efforts to bring her back to life had cost him his standing with the League, but she'd thought he'd had purely selfish motives. He'd wanted her alive, so he'd brought her back, plain and simple. She hadn't realized how much of a sacrifice it had actually been.

She could remember the time she and Billy had spent in the laundromat, discussing hardships with the jobs they were trying to get into. She knew how much getting into the League had meant to Billy. Now that she fully considered the situation, it amazed her that he would risk the League just for her. If taking over the world had been important to him, he'd set it aside.

It didn't make sense why he would do such a thing for her, and yet he had. Doing evil hadn't been as important to him so long as he'd had a chance to save her life. Maybe there was some of the Billy she had known in Dr. Horrible after all.

"When's the raid going to be?" asked Penny, breaking from her thoughts.

"Tonight," said Steve. "Probably after dark. That'th about when they've done the otherth."

Penny looked across the room at Stacey. It would still be a few hours before dark. "Are you up for more practice?"

Stacey grinned. "Let's see what you've got."

Penny gave a half smile. She wasn't sure she had much, but if she was going to attempt to stop the ELE, she had to learn fast.


	4. Chapter 4

Billy stepped down from the ladder onto the concrete floor of the damp, dark tunnel. Dead Bowie was standing a few feet from him and holding out a flashlight to illuminate their surroundings. Professor Normal and Fury Leika were above him, climbing down the ladder that descended from the street above.

Billy hated these tunnels. In addition to the dark and dampness, they had a strange musty smell and sometimes there were rats. There were crumbling and cracked walls or pillars that always made him question the structural integrity of these tunnels. And some areas were caved in, though whether done on purpose to keep the public out or by earthquakes, Billy was never certain.

There were always strange relics down here, too. Signs that marked the no-longer-existent exits or platforms dotted the length of the tunnels. Sometimes closets with old toilets or cleaning supplies could be found. Once, he had stepped on an ancient pair of glasses and kicked a lady's glove that he assumed had once been white.

The way sound echoed through the tunnel when he walked … Billy found it all very creepy. He didn't like how old and dirty everything was. He didn't like the little reminders that all things perished and crumbled with time. He'd much prefer to be up on the streets where he could think of progress and the shiny prospect of a new world order that he ruled over.

So that was what he focused his attention on while he and the three accompanying members of the ELE started their trek down the tunnel. This one still held old trolley tracks, and Billy averted his eyes, looking instead at the back of Dead Bowie's head.

The other half of the League had decided to split up to explore another tunnel in case the wonderflonium had been moved. Bad Horse hadn't joined either group. He remained back at headquarters, ensuring preparations were in place to remove the flonium from the city should they succeed. Billy didn't want to think of what might happen if they didn't.

The master plan was to build a giant freeze ray using blue prints from Billy's two-handed one. It would need a lot of wonderflonium to get up and running. Los Angeles' supplies were just the first step - everything they needed to take control of the city. Once they secured their hold…

Well, Billy wasn't quite sure how it was all supposed to work out. He'd been out of the loop for a while, what with trying to bring Penny back. But he knew the general idea was to make it to the governor. They'd take over the state of California, and then they'd move on from there. But first, they had to drudge through this grimy tunnel.

The tunnel wasn't very long, and yet Billy felt it took forever to walk it. True, it was dark and they were going slow to make sure they didn't miss anything, but Billy wanted nothing more more than to just get out of here. That, and he wondered if Moist had had any luck with finding Penny.

"This is it," said Bowie as they reached the end. The tunnel was caved in, and they were blocked from going further.

"The flonium's not here!" cried Professor Normal in frustration.

Billy felt his spirits sink. They'd come all this way for nothing, it seemed. With any luck, the other group would have found something. At least, he hoped so.

"Wait!" yelled Fury Leika, stepping forward and grabbing Dead Bowie's arm. The flashlight swung upward, briefly illuminating a gap between the rocks at about waist height. There, the light caught something that wasn't rock.

"The wonderflonium!" Bowie fell forward onto his knees, shining the light through the hole. They could all plainly see the briefcase within. As he swung the beam from side to side, they could see more briefcases, all labeled.

"How do we get to it?" asked Billy as he stepped forward and pulled on one of the rocks, which were a quarter of his size. They didn't budge. The LAPD must have piled the flonium back there and then painstakingly built the wall to keep the ELE out. There was no way this had been the result of a cave in or the flonium wouldn't be intact.

"I can get it," said Fury, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a handful in incendiary rice.

"No!" Billy told her. "If we blow up the wonderflonium, we've wasted everything."

Professor Normal flexed his fingertips as Fury put the rice back in her pocket. His goal had always been to make himself fully bionic, though the process was slow and he seemed to make completely useless parts of himself into machine. In addition to his bionic mutton chops, in the past two years he had made progress on his promised bionic arm by finally achieving bionic fingertips.

Billy stepped aside to watch as Professor Normal strode forward. He was curious if those finger tips were as useless as they looked. Normal gripped a rock, smiled in his confidence, and pulled.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Billy restrained the urge to slap a hand to his forehead as Normal continued to try. Idiots! He was surrounded by idiots!

"We're all awaiting your brilliant idea, Dr. Horrible," said Dead Bowie, swinging the flashlight in his direction and catching Billy's apparent frustration with his fellow villains.

Billy faced the group in front of him. He knew what they thought of him, that he didn't have what it took to be in the ELE, that the only reason Bad Horse had kept him around after his negligence to his duties the past two years was because he was needed to build the giant freeze ray. Well, Billy would show them. He'd prove them wrong.

"Give me that thing!" he said, grabbing the flashlight. He knew there was nothing he could do about the rock pile. He didn't have super strength, but maybe he could find something in the tunnel itself that could help them.

They walked back down the length of the tunnel. Billy swept the light from side to side, searching for anything that might aid them. Something as simple as rope or some wire could be used to tie around one of the rocks. With all of them pulling, they might be able to loosen one and slowly take the wall down or at least make the hole bigger. Even something like a crowbar could be used as leverage and would be better than nothing.

He was starting to think the LAPD had done their job too well, that they had completely cleaned the area and there was nothing to be found when he kicked the ground in frustration. A piece of the track came lose, and Billy bent to examine it. Much of the track was rusted or otherwise damaged. But this piece seemed fine.

Billy took it and went back to the wall of rocks blocking their path. He knew his companions thought his idea foolish, and he could hear them chuckling in his head, even though none of them had actually made a sound. He'd show them. He'd get the rocks loose, and he would reach the wonderflonium. And then they would stop talking about him behind his back.

He walked back and forth along the wall, trying to find the best spot. If he chose poorly, the whole wall would come down, risking damage to the flonium. In the end, he decided to attempt to widen the hole where the flonium could be seen through.

It was painstaking work. The piece of track was hard to get leverage on. He was lucky that it had a slight curve to it so he could get through the narrow space and behind the rocks he wanted to push. The piece also wasn't as sturdy as he had originally thought and he bent it in a couple places. He didn't know how long he worked with his fellow villains doing nothing but watching, and by the end of it all, he was drenched in his own sweat. But he'd made a hole big enough for one of them to slip a head and an arm through.

Professor Normal checked his watch. "And in another hour or so, we might be able to actually reach the flonium."

Billy scowled, checking his hole. They would be able to reach some of the flonium, but a lot of it was out of reach. He'd need to make the hole bigger if they intended to get it all.

He didn't want to admit it, but his arms were tired. He wasn't used to this kind of manual labor. He had death rays and freeze rays. He was used to blasting things that he couldn't get through. Not all this pushing and shoving and pulling. It was exhausting.

But he couldn't admit his weakness to his colleagues, so he raised the piece of track again. Just a little more work, and they would have what they came for.

Another light shinned on Billy's face. "Not so fast, Dr. Horrible!"

Billy turned, shielding his eyes as he did so. His companions stepped aside, and eventually his eyes adjusted to make out a line of silhouettes he recognized as the LAPD. The beam of light shifted and he could see they were all pointing guns at them.

"Drop it!" one of them ordered.

But Billy held on to the track piece. He eyed his companions. Professor Normal was flexing his bionic fingertips. Fury Leika had exchanged her incendiary rice for a ball and chain that she swung in her hand. Dead Bowie stared at the group of police officers as though trying to hypnotize them.

"Drop your weapons!" another cop shouted. "Or we will open fire!"

Billy stared at the guns, for a moment uncertain. But then he thought of the wall behind him and of the tunnel all around him. They wouldn't open fire, he realized. They couldn't. All that noise and commotion… things were far too unstable down here. They wouldn't take the risk.

Bowie must have realized the same thing because he raised his arm toward the cops and said, "You're bluffing."

 

 

Penny rode the Hammer Cycle to the area Steve had told her the tunnel entrance would be. She'd worried she wouldn't be able to find it, but when she rounded the street corner her search was made easy by the circle of cop cars. One of the police officers approached her as she drew near. She was thankful for being able to bring the cycle to a smooth stop this time.

"Miss," he said. "You're going to have to turn around."

"I'm here to help," she told him as she swung her leg over the bike.

He eyed her costume, and she realized he thought she was just another kid dressed like a superhero but without any special powers.

"Miss," he said. "I'm sorry, but we can't let you through here. Please get back on your bike and turn around."

Penny glanced from the police officer to the row of cars behind him. It didn't look like they had the ELE in custody yet. And without help, she wasn't sure they would be able to do so. They hadn't been able to in the past two years.

"I'm sorry," she told the cop before sprinting past him.

"Wait!" he shouted, trying to grab her.

But she was too fast. Her super agility moved her body forward at a speed she didn't realize she was capable of. She knew exactly how to move, how to bend, how to place her feet against the road to get the perfect amount of leverage to push herself forward. She knew exactly how to carry that momentum through as she pushed through the air. In no time at all, she was passed the cop, through the line of cars, and down the ladder of the tunnel.

She paused at the bottom to take in her surroundings. The tunnel was dark and damp with little to no lighting. She thought she heard voices coming from the other end, and as she moved toward them a gun shot fired, then a few more.

Penny broke into a run, eventually reaching the end of the tunnel where the police were engaged with the Evil League of Evil. The LAPD were slowly backing away, trying to maintain the line they had formed. Fury Leika was advancing on them, twirling a ball at the end of a chain in the air.

Penny surveyed the scene, trying to decide where she could best make a move. Then she sped through the line of police toward Fury Leika where she punched her in the stomach, sending her backward.

"What the-?" someone shouted.

Penny turned around to face the rest of the Evil League of Evil. There were fewer members here than she'd thought there would be, but that didn't make them any less dangerous. Her eyes wondered over them as they stared at her. Eventually, she noticed Dr. Horrible who held a case of wonderflonium in his hands.

"Drop it," she told him.

He continued to stare like he couldn't make up his mind if she was the real deal or not.

"I said, drop it!" Penny tried again.

Dr. Horrible stared at her for another moment or two before Penny felt herself pulled back. Fury Leika had grabbed her by the ankle. Penny tried to push her off but was surprised at the strength the super villain possessed. She pulled Penny to the ground and they grappled with one another, punching and kicking.

Above them, what sounded like an explosion erupted. The rest of the ELE had arrived and were doing battle with the police still up on the street.

"Fall back!" came Dead Bowie's voice. "Grab as much of the wonderflonium as you can!"

Professor Normal ran to the hole in the wall and reached inside. Dr. Horrible stepped forward and held his case of flonium in front of him like a shield. The police couldn't shoot and risk hitting the flonium. They holstered their guns and raised their batons, advancing on the group before them.

Billy didn't have a weapon, nothing but the case in his hands. He'd dropped his track piece when he'd rushed to the hole to grab a case of flonium to stop the police from shooting. Not thinking, he swung the wonderflonium at the police officer who neared him.

What made wonderflonium such a wonderful and valuable energy source was the same thing that made it highly unstable. There was a reason containers of flonium always came with the warning "do not bounce." Billy hit the woman alongside the head with his case, knocking her to the ground. But then the case bounced, flinging him toward the tunnel wall as he clung to the case's handle.

He ricocheted off the wall, flying across the expanse of the tunnel. In hindsight, he'd wonder why he didn't just let go of the case. But as he'd flown through the air, his body had told him to hold on to something, anything that he might be able to grasp and stop himself. It didn't matter that the very thing he was holding on to was the thing that was propelling him. Instinct had sadly overruled logic.

Penny was finally able to gain the upper hand on Fury Leika. She punched the super villain in the face, knocking her out. As she climbed to her feet and watched as Dr. Horrible ping-poned from one wall of the tunnel to the next, she found herself mesmerized, unable to determine what to do next as she watched the scene before her.

The LADP were crouched low to ground, trying to avoid being hit by Dr. Horrible's haphazard flight. But Dead Bowie and Professor Normal were using the opportunity to slip away, running between police officers and ducking their heads whenever Dr. Horrible whizzed near.

Penny ran after them, catching up with them a little further down the tunnel. She grabbed Professor Normal by the back of his shirt, flinging him down. He hit the ground and then bounced toward the ceiling, the two cases of wonderflonium he held propelling him back and forth. Eventually, he had the sense to let go, and he lay dazed on the ground.

Penny turned to face Dead Bowie, only to find he was right in front of her. Her gaze caught his eyes, and she couldn't turn away. Something about his look captivated her.

"Stay right here," he said.

She wouldn't be able to recall his words later, but the command stuck with her. She turned in her spot, following Bowie as he stepped over to help Professor Normal to his feet, but she didn't move from where she stood. The thought didn't even occur to her.

The two villains left the cases of wonderflonium behind as they bounced uselessly between the floor and ceiling. Penny found herself fixed on the cases until one shot past her head, breaking whatever spell Dead Bowie had placed on her.

She turned at the sound of a groan and found Dr. Horrible lying a few feet away where he had finally let go.

Penny listened as the police from the end of the tunnel approached. The sounds of the battle from the street above had stopped. And though she waited, the ELE never emerge into the tunnel. They had gone and left both Fury Lieka and Dr. Horrible behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Act III**

Life behind bars was not as bad as Billy had first imagined it would be. He knew prison could be rough for a nerdy guy like him, but there were enough guys from the Henchman's union in his complex that he didn't have to deal with any trouble. The library was filled with books, many outdated, but at least some were on subjects in which he could expand his intellect. And the black market also provided plenty to busy himself with as he plotted his escape. Within three days, he had settled himself into a comfortable routine.

His only reason for the slightest discontent was Fury Leika. His plans for escape changed as his mind debated back and forth on whether he should break her out with him. He had no doubt she was planning her own escape. The alarms that periodically rang across the recess yard from the women's complex were proof of that. But he didn't know if she planned to break him out with her. It would be wrong of him not to return the favor if she was. And even if she wasn't … he didn't want to face her wrath for leaving her behind.

He wondered if it was all a waste anyway. Surely the League would come for them. And if they were, he didn't think it would be damaging to spend his days reading in his cell. Maybe he could uncover some refinements to the freeze ray. But if they weren't coming, if his two years of negligence had provided them with enough reasons to save Fury Leika over him… it wouldn't matter. He was much too smart for these peons. He would be out soon, and in the mean time, he would enjoy being king of this little castle.

By the end of a week, he'd grown so comfortable that he wasn't surprised when his routine was broken by the announcement that he had a visitor. His first thought was that Moist had come with news from the outside. He wasn't surprised either when he entered the room with the glass panels and phone receivers and didn't see his friend right away. Moist was short in stature. Surely, Billy just couldn't see him.

No, the surprise itself didn't come until the guard escorting him turned him into a cubical and sat him into a chair facing the red headed Captain Hammer uniformed woman who had tried to stop him from stealing the wonderflonium. He stared at her open mouthed until he realized she had the phone to her ear and was indicating he should pick up his end.

"Hello," she said as though she were a friend of his and had come to greet him.

He didn't answer right away. And when he did, the only words he could find were, "What do you want?"

"To talk," she said simply, and it was the truth.

Penny's efforts in protecting the wonderflonium a week ago had gained the attention of the LAPD. She'd been herald as the city's hero, and public gratitude and pressure had outpoured. She'd realized quickly that she couldn't do everything the citizens of Los Angeles wanted her to do. Even with her super powers, she couldn't clean the streets on her own. She couldn't erase all the crime. She couldn't restore everyone to their former homes and lives in the blink of an eye.

She'd grown overwhelmed and had spent the past few days hiding out in the warehouse with Steve and watching all of Dr. Horrible's video blogs. She'd been surprised with what she'd seen there. The Billy she'd known at the laundromat had not been an act as she had first thought. He was real and a part of the super villain who sat before her. If there was any way she could reach him… she had to try.

"Who are you?" Billy asked. She looked so familiar to him, and yet he couldn't discern her true identity under the uniform.

Penny glanced to either side of her. The cubical kept her face hidden from those sitting next to her, but she had to be certain. Confident no one would see, she lifted the yellow band around her eyes.

Billy dropped the receiver and fumbled to pick it up, never taking his eyes off Penny as she slid the band back down. "H-How?" he asked when he finally brought the phone to his head. He realized he had it upside down and turned it over.

Penny shrugged. "I went to find Captain Hammer to ask for help. He offered me his powers instead."

Billy continued to stare at her. Here was Penny - sweet little laundromat Penny, who two years ago had only wanted to open a building to house the homeless - sitting across from him with the powers and uniform of his arch nemesis.

"Hammer Girl," he muttered.

"That's what they're calling me," said Penny, like the name didn't matter - like the fact the girl of his dreams had become his arch nemesis didn't matter.

Billy shook his head, trying to clear the shock from his mind. His eye twitched. "You, uh, wanted to talk?"

"Yes," said Penny, sitting straighter and more confidently than Billy had ever seen her. He supposed that was what becoming a superhero did to people. "I want the ELE to stop decimating the city."

Billy wasn't sure how talking to a member who was in prison and unable to effect anything outside the walls was any help. "Don't you think you should take this conversation up with them outside?"

"Yes," said Penny. "But unlike the rest of them, I know you actually care."

Billy's eye twitched again. "What do you mean?"

"I watched your vlogs, Billy," she said. He jumped at hearing his name. He was Dr. Horrible here. No one called him Billy. "I know about the park, for instance. How you wouldn't fight in there because of the children."

"So." He said.

He didn't like the side of himself that he was showing her, this nastiness. But she was breaking down his reputation. He was Dr. Horrible, one of the most evil masterminds of the century. They weren't at the laundromat. She couldn't talk to him like they were friends. They weren't friends. She was  _Hammer Girl_. They were on opposite sides of the playing field now. No matter how much he might wish to go back to being laundry buddies, to just being Billy and Penny, he didn't have the luxury. Not here, and certainly not once he broke out. Things had changed, and there was no going back to the way they were.

"So," said Penny, unphased by his attitude. "I want you to convince the ELE to leave the parks alone when you get out."

He blinked at her. His twitch continued. "How do you know I'll get out?"

"Super villains always break out," she told him. "It's in all the comic books."

He stared at her. Clean up the parks? He would love to, personally. She was right in that. But how could he convince the rest of the League to go along with him? He was already in a risky position with them. If he pushed his limits too hard…

He looked at Penny again, really looked her over. When he'd first seen her in that landromat, he never would have imagined things would come to this - that forces would push them against each other. All he'd ever wanted was a date, maybe a kiss … maybe a little more than that. And now… everything he'd wanted since before joining the ELE had been taken away from him.

Did he owe the League anything? What exactly had they done for him, anyway? They'd made him go back on his morals - murder and desecrating parks. They hadn't helped when he'd wanted to bring Penny back to life. And it was because they'd wanted him to kill someone that she had died in the first place.

No, he owed them nothing. So what if they balked at his suggestion to leave the parks alone? He was a super villain, and super villains didn't bend over backwards to please those they didn't care about. Super villains took what they wanted and didn't make apologies.

But, if he was going to help out a superhero, then it was only fair she would do something for him.

"Tell you what," said Billy, a grin spreading across his face. His eye had finally stopped twitching. "I'll put in the suggestion to keep the parks clean if you do something for me."

It was her turn to stare. "What do you want?"

"A date," he told her. "With frozen yogurt from that place we like."

She blinked and didn't speak for a moment or two. "I… all right."

"Yes?" he asked, hardly daring to believe it.

"Yes," she said, her super hero confidence back. "It's a date."

"Excellent." Billy hung up the receiver, slapped the counter, let out a whoop, and walked with a skip in his step back to his cell.

 

 

The guard led Billy to the outside visitor area. Tables sat inside a caged enclosure where prisoners could eat with family members or friends who came to see them. Penny sat at the nearest table in her full Hammer Girl uniform with two cups of frozen yogurt.

Billy felt a little strange as he sat down across from her. The scene was almost like the days they'd spent at the laundromat, except that she was dressed like a superhero and he was wearing a prisoner's uniform. It wasn't quite the same, but as he dipped his spoon into the cup and caught her smiling at him, he decided it was close enough.

"So how is being Hammer Girl treating you?" he asked.

"It's…" she let out a long sigh. "Demanding."

"I bet," he said nodding.

"How's the League treating you?" she asked, popping her spoon into her mouth.

It was Billy's turn to sigh. He turned his face away from her in an attempt to hide his frustration, but she noticed anyway.

"Not the job you thought you wanted?" she asked.

"It's the best I have," he told her, stabbing at the yogurt in the bowl with his spoon. "Without the League, I wouldn't be-"

"Defacing public areas for children," Penny chimed. "Sending the city into a state of panic, spreading crime throughout the streets, displacing people from their homes-"

"Hey!" Billy pointed his plastic spork at her. "I promised to clean up the parks, okay?"

Penny stabbed at her own yogurt. At length, she said, "You could be doing so much more."

"Oh, like what?" he asked. "Finding beds for the homeless?"

"It's important!" she told him.

Billy restrained himself from rolling his eyes. "It's a symptom."

"Right," she said. "And we have to cut off the head of the human race. I've heard this one before."

They stared at each other, irritated. And then after a few moments, they both gave a snort and started laughing like someone had just said a good joke. The tension broken, they turned back to their yogurt.

"Do you wear that around everywhere?" Billy asked, indicating her uniform.

"I have to," she admitted. "People freak out when they realize there's a dead girl walking around."

Billy gave a thoughtful nod. He wasn't sure if he should apologize for bringing her back or not. He was certainly glad to have her around, but he didn't know how she felt. Though, from what little he knew of her, he supposed she was happy to be able to do whatever good she could.

"Are you really convinced you have to rule the world in order to make it a better place?" Penny asked, breaking isn't his thoughts.

Billy shrugged. "It's the only way to get anyone to listen."

She stared at him like she felt sorry for him. "You could try compassion."

He stared at her and tried to come up with some reply, but nothing came to him. He spooned some yogurt into his mouth to avoid answering.

"Thank you by the way," she said.

He lifted his head to look at her.

"For bringing me back," she explained. "It was … disorienting at first, but … well, it's still disorienting sometimes. But I'm alive, and that's something."

Billy nodded. "I don't know who else I'd share frozen yogurt with."

That won a smile from her.

He went back to his yogurt and was disappointed when he scraped the bottom of the cup. Their little date had gone way too fast. "We'll have to do this again some time," he said.

"That depends," she told him, still smiling. "What are you going to give me in return?"

He thought about that one. He really didn't know what he could do. If he kept offering to clean up parts of the city in return for frozen yogurt dates, he'd eventually run out of city to bribe her with... not to mention what little standing with the League he had left.

But apparently, Penny hadn't been expecting a response or she took his silence as an answer. She gave a sigh. "There  _is_  some part of you that genuinely like." She admitted. "But this thing with the Evil League of Evil…" She reached across the table and took his hand. "There's good in you. I've seen it. You might think evil is the only way, but it's not."

Billy slid his hand from hers, though he did so with reluctance. "I think you'd make a beautiful super villain."

Penny shook her head. "I'm not trying to take over the world. I'm just …" She gave a heavy sigh. "Trying to save it."

"Not as easy as it sounds, is it?" he said.

She looked up and smiled at him. "I've been told the evil route hasn't worked so well for you either."

She had a point, but he wasn't going to admit that.

"Good luck, Billy," she said as the guard appeared at the door to the gate to take him back to his cell.

"You too… Hammer Girl."

 

 

Penny tossed and turned in her sleeping bag at the warehouse. When she decided she wasn't going to get any sleep, she went to the computer and rewatched all of Billy's vlogs. She laughed and smiled at the goodness she saw him display, even when he was trying to hide it. How had he turned down this path? What had he seen or experienced to make him believe evil was the only way to achieve his goals?

They both wanted the same thing in the end. They wanted the world to be a better place, they just disagreed on how to accomplish it. Through their friendship, could she help him to see how destructive the path was that he had chosen? Could she turn him from evil?

She wasn't sure, but she knew that she cared about him. And it hurt her to see him struggling down a path that would yield dismal results. She would go back, she knew, to the prison, and she would bring more frozen yogurt. They would talk, and she wouldn't care if he didn't promise her anything in return. She would do whatever she could to bring him to the side of good.

She returned to the prison a week later with two cups of frozen yogurt in her hands. Billy didn't know she was coming, and she was looking forward to the surprise. But as she neared the doors, she heard the alarm go off inside the complex.

The guards inside the doors let her through. She dropped the frozen yogurt to the ground, and ran inside. Somehow she knew exactly what the source of the commotion was. She arrived at Billy's cell to find him standing against the bars with his arms reached through, holding on to one of the prison workers. He had a hand blaster pointed at the man's head. No one knew how he had gotten hold of the weapon or what he might have made it from.

"Dr. Horrible!" Penny cried, pushing past the crowd of guards that had formed around Billy's cell.

He looked at her, and his face fell, though his resolve never wavered. "Sorry, you have to see this, Hammer Girl."

"Don't-" she tried, but she knew there was nothing she could say that could convince him to let the hostage go. And she was afraid that if he saw her move, he would fire.

A terrible cry split the air. A whinny that brought Penny's hands to her ears and sent everyone around her to the ground. The ceiling above Billy's head exploded and when the smoke cleared, Fury Leika and Bad Horse could be seen standing next to the hole.

Billy laughed and dropped the unconscious prison worker he'd been holding. Then he grasped the rope that had been thrown down to him.

Penny shook her head, trying to shake off the terror Bad Horse's whinny had filled her with, though it didn't seem to hurt her as badly as everyone else. She stepped to the bars of Billy's cell and pulled, trying to make a gap large enough to step through. Though the bars bent, Bad Horse's whinny seemed to have affected her powers. She couldn't pull the bar's wide enough.

"Billy!" she cried out, reaching her arm through toward him. She didn't know what she expected from him. Of course, he would take his escape. Who wouldn't? But some part of her wanted to know that her laundry buddy was still in there somewhere, that he hadn't been swallowed up by the super villain she saw before her.

Dr. Horrible turned his face to her, and she could see her friend in his gentle gaze. Then he smiled, and the super villain returned.

They weren't done. That much was clear to Billy as he slowly ascended into the air, pulled by the rope. He would get to Penny - to Hammer Girl. She would come around. She would see the true benefit of evil. And he, Dr. Horrible, would be the one to show it to her. He would rise to power, and she would bend to it. But he would be merciful, he would pull her to his side and they would rule the world together as equal partners.

That was the plan - the ultimate master plan that he had never lost sight of. Penny would be his, and he would help her to see the path he walked was the only way to achieve what they both wanted. He would never stop fighting for her.

As Billy disappeared from view along with Fury Leika and Bad Horse, Penny knew she would never stop fighting for him. Somehow, she'd make him understand. She vowed she would save him.

They would be two nemeses, locked in a battle of good and evil that would only resolve when one of them gave in. And when at last one of them did, they would embrace the other … maybe even kiss.

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I entertained you, consider buying me a coffee: Ko-fi.com/heidirs
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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